Madlib, Producer for Kanye West and Mos Def, Sues Former Manager Over Deceptive Business Practices

Madlib, producer for tracks by Kanye West, Mos Def and MF Doom, filed a lawsuit Thursday against Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, former manager of Stones Throw Records and founder of subsidiary label Now-Again.

According to the suit, filed earlier today in the Los Angeles Court, the rapper/producer (real name Otis Lee Jackson Jr.) alleges that Alapatt installed Now-Again as an intermediary entity in existing management deals for Madlib music, licensing and merchandising, and exploited that management structure to bolster revenue for himself and his label. “Not only was EGON not performing these duties, but he was also engaged in rank self-dealing, concealing information from and repeatedly breaching his duties to Madlib, and otherwise engaging in persistent and pervasive mismanagement,” the suit claims.

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It also claims that Alapatt maintained complete control of Madlib’s business ventures and finances, while refusing to provide transparent accounting records or appropriate legal barriers between his artistic, business, merchandising and label management endeavors.

“A forensic accounting commissioned by Madlib … revealed several accounting irregularities as well as a lack of any backup documentation for, among other things, payments to [Alappat], [codefendant Jeffrey Carlson] and others as ‘consulting,’ ‘commissions,’ ‘fees’ or ‘reimbursements’ (totaling in the several hundred thousands of dollars), the majority of inbound deposits to the two entities’ bank accounts (totaling in the several millions of dollars),” the filing states.

Legal representatives for Alapatt did not immediately comment on the suit.

Madlib’s suit follows another filed in late 2023 by Jasmine Dumile Thompson, widow of MF Doom, who claimed that Alapatt exploited the late rapper’s 2010 move to the U.K. to obtain ownership of 31 notebooks containing unreleased lyrics and songs. Thompson’s suit argues that that her notoriously secretive husband, who passed away in 2020, would have wanted that material kept private, and seeks their return. Though Alapatt obtained the notebooks by legal means — he purchased them from Doom’s studio landlord for $12,500 in exchange for unpaid rent — he announced plans to donate them to a hip-hop archive, which Thompson is trying to stop.

Per the Oct. 31 filing, Madlib exercised his right to dissolve Madicine Show, the company Alapatt formed to oversee the rapper’s operational dealings, and Rapp Cats, described as a “vehicle for Madlib’s music merchandising activities.” Through his lawyers, Madlib seeks a full accounting of financial assets and liabilities, as well as unspecified compensation for damage to his business and to his reputation.